Not tired yet: B’s chase Roberto Luongo, force Game 7

The Bruins weren’t ready to see their season end or willing to watch the Canucks raise the Stanley Cup[1] on their ice Monday and it showed, as they chased Roberto Luongo[2] at the Garden again in a 5-2 win at TD Garden to force a Game 7 of the finals. The Cup winner will be determined at Rogers Arena in Vancouver Wednesday night.

Brad Marchand[3] opened the scoring at 5:31 with his third goal in the last four games. With nine goals this postseason, he has set the postseason record for a Bruins rookie.

Milan Lucic[4] followed with a goal of his own at 6:06, and an Andrew Ference[5] power-play goal at 8:35 ended Luongo’s night early in favor of Cory Schneider[6]. Luongo has now gotten the hook in two games this series, both of which were at the Garden.

Michael Ryder[7] and David Krejci[8] chipped in goals as well, with Krejci’s coming on the power play in the third period. The Canucks got contributions on the scoreboard from Henrik Sedin[9] (his first point of the finals) and Maxim Lapierre[10]. Tim Thomas[11] has now allowed eight goals over six games this series.

Wednesday night will be the Bruins’ third Game 7 in four rounds this postseason,as they eliminated both the Canadiens and Lightning in seven games. The Canucks beat the Blackhawks in seven games, their only seven-game series this postseason.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE BRUINS

– Luongo was bad once again, and it seemed that all it took was Marchand’s goal, an absolute rifle glove-side, so open up the floodgates. The Bruins certainly have a way of getting to the highly-scrutinized Canucks netminder in Boston, as he has now allowed 15 goals in less than two games’ worth of play at TD Garden this series. The problem when it comes to the play of Luongo vs. the Bruins, of course, is that he has not had such issues in Vancouver. He’s allowed just two goals over three games and has posted two shutouts.

– The Bruins talked a lot about getting more traffic in front of the net after being shut out in Game 5, and they certainly did that Monday night. Their third and fourth goals came as the direct result of having bodies in front. Mark Recchi[12] set a perfect screen on Ference’s power-play goal that chased Luongo from the game. A minute later Ryder got in front of Schneider and tipped Tomas Kaberle[13]‘s shot into the top corner. Needless to say, continuing to get traffic to the net will be a key for the Bruins in Game 7.

– A couple of nice statistical nights for the defensemen. Kaberle had a pair of assists on the night, giving him 11 points this postseason — the most among Boston defensemen. Ference led all B’s in ice time.

On a more peculiar note (and this may not necessarily be bad), Dennis Sieidenberg didn’t see the ice from until 1:22 of the third period until 11:32 and was not on the bench for a time. We’ll see whether this was equipment or injury-related.

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE BRUINS

– While the Bruins dominated the first period with relative ease, but Vancouver did come to life from there. The Canucks seemed to regain focus with Schneider in net and spent far more time in the Bruins’ zone. Three power plays will do that, but it should be taken as a sign that just because Luongo collapses, doesn’t mean the hole team does. The Canucks outshot the B’s, 11-8, in the second period and opened the third period by finally getting on the board.

Jannik Hansen thought he had made it 4-2 shortly after, though his shot rang off the post and bounced back as though it had gone in and out. Were it not for the Canucks handing the B’s a 1:13 two-man advantage (on which Krejci scored) with 13:49 to play, the Canucks could have really put a serious fight to make it a close one.

– The idea of a brother Sedin scoring on the power play was something people were prepared to get used to entering the series, but the Bruins had done an excellent job of keeping both the Sedins and the Canucks’ power play silent. Henrik got plenty fancy in beating Thomas for his third-period goal. The tally was his third goal of the postseason and his 22nd point, putting him in a tie with Krejci for the postseason lead in the latter category until Krejci scored to jump back ahead.

– For the first time in his NHL[14] career, Patrice Bergeron[15] was called for four penalties in one game, three of them in the second period. First he was whistled for goaltender interference when he steamrolled Schneider while trying to tip home a centering pass. Then he went off for hauling down Ryan Kesler[16] behind the play. And in the final minute of the period, his elbow came up a little too high while throwing a hit on Christian Ehrhoff. In the third, he and Alexandre Burrows earned matching minors for extracurriculars after the Bruins’ fifth goal. The eight penalty minutes were a new career-high for Bergeron, beating his previous high of seven on April 18, 2009, against the Canadiens. That was also a playoff game — Game 2 of what became a four-game sweep.